Collective Feminist Art – The exhibition that honors art on paper

Art on paper – as I call it, isn’t only paint and a canvas. It’s also photography, pencil, printed designs and more. This particular event boasted a number of artists of different diciplines who exhibited their work in the Faculty of Arts’ Gallery in Prishtina.

All of the artwork was submitted online to Femart’s team, and the curators Majlinda Shefkiu and Stefana Stojilkovic chose the best of the best for the exhibition. An interesting fact pointed out by Zana Hoxha Krasniqi, the the executive director for Artpolis, is that this category gathered the most submissions in all of the other categories of Femart.

Part of this exhibition were :

Ilina Arsova Visual – MK,

Fjolla Ferati – KS,

Albulena Jashari – KS,

Shqipe Mehmeti – KS

Florentina Pllana – KS,

Rozafa Shpuza – ALB

Fjolla Bislimi -KS,

Shpatina Fejzullahu – MK

Anida Basha and Arbian Kahrimab – KS,

Anita Ramshaj- KS,

Sehida Miftari – KS,

Ardiana Shala-Prishtina – KS,

Vlora Kosumi- KS,

Milica Milović Kinolli – SRB.

Notable artwork were photographs of Kosovar women on the day they are married, portraying a significant part of Kosova’s culture. Women were lavishly dressed and their faces painted with a white finished, topped with various markings of blue, silver and orange.

Drawings were no stranger to the exhibition. A most memorable piece of the exhibition was the image of a woman who’s mouth is being covered by what seems a man’s hand. Her big eyes can’t go unnoticed, as they give you the feeling that she has something to say, but isn’t allowed to.

A very pleasant part of the exhibition were the artworks of of Florentina Pllana, who’s illustrations show women during their marriage, but in an animated form. You see gorgeous hair filled with flowers, rosy cheeks and red lips, paired with the traditional clothes of women on their big day.

Photographs of different women in various settings filled one a whole wall of the gallery. Some experimenting with light, some portraying a naked woman on the rocks high in the mountains, and some showing women wrapped in some sort of tulle.

What I found most interesting about the whole exhibition, besides the immense talent oozing from the paintings and photographs, was an installation in one part of the gallery. This installation consisted of a ladder in the middle, with books on each of the steps, which in my view symbolized that success comes from knowledge, and the more you are informed the higher up you can go. Surrounding this ladder were numerous veils hung onto the ceiling by handcuffs. This was by far one of the most creative ways to show “entrapment in marriage” without having to debate your way around it. They symbolized how many women are forced into marriage and not allowed to get an education. A true representation of not only our society, but many societies around the world.